


Just Enough to Get By

by ByTheAngell (SomeLittleInfamy)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Head of the Institute Maryse Lightwood, Light Angst, M/M, POV Jace Wayland, Secret Relationship, Sick Alec Lightwood, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27558151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeLittleInfamy/pseuds/ByTheAngell
Summary: When Alec gets attacked by a rogue warlock, Jace goes against direct orders to contact Magnus to try and save his injured and slowly dying parabatai.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane & Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 32
Kudos: 277
Collections: SHBingo 20-21





	Just Enough to Get By

**Author's Note:**

> For my Shadowhunters Bingo square: Potion Gone Wrong

Jace shouldn’t be here.

“Do you trust me?” Magnus asks, holding the small glass bottle carefully between his fingertips.

“What is it?” Jace prompts.

Magnus only shakes his head. “Something that will help. Do you trust me?”

Jace hesitates. Trust is not something that Jace does easily, certainly not with people he barely knows, and certainly not with Downworlders.

He knows that Magnus could tell him what the potion does and what it contains if he wants to. But he doesn’t, because this is a test.

Alec isn’t here. More specifically, Alec is unconscious after getting in the way of a particularly nasty bit of magic while apprehending a rogue warlock. As such, the Lightwoods are being overly suspicious of any and all magic, not even allowing the usual warlock healers the Institute keeps on retainer to see Alec. If they knew Jace was here, meeting Magnus Bane of all people in a dingy Brooklyn alleyway, he wouldn’t be allowed in to see Alec, either.

Jace doesn’t know much about Alec and Magnus’ relationship. Alec isn’t really one to kiss and tell, but he knows from the way Alec speaks about Magnus during what little Jace manages to pry from him that Alec cares about Magnus, and he thinks Magnus cares about Alec in return. Their relationship may be a secret to most, but that doesn't make it insignificant - Jace knows the hesitation that got Alec hurt in the first place came from a sudden unwillingness to kill the rogue warlock, and that sort of hesitation isn’t brought out of a Nephilim by a passing fling. 

_Do you trust me?_ Magnus’ question hangs heavy in the space between them.

“Honestly? No,” Jace says finally. “But Alec does. And that’s good enough for me.”

Jace reaches out and takes the bottle from Magnus’ hand, tucking it carefully into an inside pocket of his jacket.

“I’ll give it to him as soon as I get back.”

Jace hopes for all of their sakes that his parabatai’s trust isn’t misplaced.

\---

The potion doesn’t work. Worse than that, the potion makes Ale’s condition deteriorate even faster. His temperature spikes drastically between fevers and chills so extreme they send his body into shock and Jace stands by not just helplessly, but full of the guilt that this is now, in part, his fault. He doesn’t leave Alec’s side as he applies Iratze after Iratze, stronger because they’re from him but not strong enough.

Jace blames himself but not as much as he blames Magnus. It’s easier to assume this is a set-up, that he was tricked by the warlock to deliver poison to his parabatai rather than what Magnus claimed would work as a healing potion.

That is, until there’s screaming fit to wake the dead at the entrance of the Institute, and the sounds of pictures falling from walls as bodies are tossed aside, held away by magic as someone forces their way past every Shadowhunter stationed to stop them.

“Take me to Alexander,” Magnus demands the moment he sees Jace approaching him. “And tell your Nephilim to stand down. I don’t want to hurt them, but I will if they try and keep me out a second longer.”

The others look to Jace now, waiting for guidance and orders, and Jace hesitates. Golden cat-eyes come closer as Magnus doesn’t wait for an answer before continuing his approach. It’s a 50/50 chance, Jace figures. Either Magnus is here because he cares and is willing to risk his own life to help Alec, or he’s here because he wants to finish the job no matter what the cost.

Jace figures he has nothing to lose because if he’s wrong about Magnus, Alec dies. But if he’s right, and he keeps Magnus out, Alec may very well die anyway.

“Let him in,” Jace says. “Hurry,” he adds to Magnus, who doesn’t need the encouragement. “We don’t have much time before someone alerts Maryse and Robert.”

“What didn’t you tell me?” Magnus demands.

“What?” Jace asks, confused.

“The potion should’ve worked based on the information about the attack you gave me. So what _didn’t_ you tell me?” Magnus repeats.

“I told you everything I knew,” Jace swears as they walk through the doors of the Infirmary and Jace dismisses the Nephilim waiting within, all of whom eagerly scurry out of the path of the raging warlock, magic already crackling at his fingertips as they approach Alec. Tensing but not making any move to stop Magnus, Jace watches as blue magic starts at Alec’s head and moves down his body.

“Go over it again,” Magnus demands, his eyes never leaving Alec.

“There was a rogue warlock. Alec had a clear kill shot but he hesitated and went to maim instead. He moved at the last second and it barely grazed him, and he attacked Alec. By the time we dealt with the warlock and got to Alec he was already unconscious.”

Magnus frowns. “Details. I want every insignificant moment of that attack down to the color of the goddamn underwear you were wearing.”

Jace tries to remember. “It was night, and we had a witchlight but there weren’t a lot of street lamps nearby. His magic was purple… light purple, like lavender. When he shouted the spell at Alec-”

“Wait. He spoke? Like an incantation?” Magnus’ magic doesn’t stop but his gaze turns to Jace now and Jace nods. “You didn’t say that before. You just said he attacked him.”

“He did,” Jace says, brows furrowed.

“Warlocks don’t need to speak to attack. If he used an incantation…”

Magnus’ magic shifts now, the blue becoming darker. The sound of the door opening behind them and heels clicking on the floor has Jace turning to see Maryse entering.

“If you want Alec to live, keep her away,” Magnus says through gritted teeth before he begins to mutter under his breath in a language Jace doesn’t recognize.

“Jace! I’ll have you tried for crimes against-” Maryse is already threatening.

“He’s healing him,” Jace insists, and against all of his better judgment activates all of his runes without thinking and uses his heightened speed and strength to catch Maryse by the arm and drag her back toward the door, away from Magnus. “You have to let him try, or we’re going to lose him. We’re going to lose Alec.”

Maryse struggles against his grip. “No! The mandate was clear, and you went against a direct order from-”

“THAT ORDER WAS GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF YOUR SON!” Jace snaps. “And my breaking it might be the only thing that saves him.” Jace instinctively puts a hand over the blade on his hip, and Maryse follows his movement with wide eyes. “I can’t lose him. I _won’t_. I’ll do whatever I have to to keep him alive, Maryse, do _not_ test me.”

Jace prays to the Angel it doesn’t come to that. He and Maryse remain at the far end of the room, their temporary stillness tense and threatening to break at any moment. Jace prepares to do the unthinkable, to actually _attack_ not just another Nephilim, not just the Head of the Institute, but the woman who took him in and raised him as her own.

Thankfully, it doesn’t come to that.

There’s a clatter behind him and he turns at Maryse’s startled gasp to see Magnus collapse next to Alec’s bed. Jace and Maryse forget their standoff and both rush over, Maryse and Jace both checking Alec first before Jace kneels to the ground next to Magnus, who is breathing heavy, strained breaths.

“Did it... work?” Magnus manages to ask, eyes closed as if he doesn’t even have the strength to keep them open. Maybe he doesn’t.

Jace stands again just in time to see Alec’s breathing even out and his eyes open slowly against the harsh light of the infirmary.

“...Magnus?” Alec says, his voice strained from a dry throat. “I heard… thought I felt…”

Jace watches Maryse bristle as he helps Magnus up and into the chair next to Alec’s bed.

“I’m here,” Magnus says, but makes no move toward Alec. “Just rest. The warlock who attacked you left a… well, a curse, for lack of a better word. Anything done to heal your body would have the reverse effect.”

Jace stills. The potion Magnus gave him. The Iratzes he faithfully reapplied every hour. Everything he’d done to help Alec had hurt him twice as much.

“There’s no way anyone could’ve known,” Magnus adds quickly, and Jace knows it’s for his benefit. “Well, anyone without magic, that is. Had a _warlock_ been allowed in,” Magnus continues, his words now pointedly aimed at Maryse.

“You still broke into my Institute,” Maryse points out. “You attacked our guards, and-”

“And saved your son’s life,” Magnus cuts her off, sounding ready to fight.

“I brought him here,” Jace says quickly. “I told him to come. If there is any fallout for his presence it’s mine to face. I take full responsibility for anything the High Warlock did at my request.”

Jace ignores the shocked looks from everyone in the room, Magnus included. It’s a lie, but only Magnus knows that, and the Shadowhunters who can attest to him ordering them to stand down in the entryway will only back his claim. Shouldering the blame for breaking Maryse’s mandate is the least he can do after Magnus saved Alec’s life.

“You and I will discuss the consequences for your reckless actions later. Escort Mr. Bane out then wait for me in my office.” Maryse tells him, and Jace knows better than to do anything but keep his mouth shut and nod. “As for you,” she adds to Magnus as he stands. “In the future, you’d do well to remember who has authority here - because it is _not_ Jace Wayland.”

Maryse, seething at the turn of events, stands with her arms crossed and waits expectantly for them to leave. Jace almost misses the quick look that passes between Magnus and Alec, a silent moment of longing, relief, and gratitude, all rolled up into the moment or two they allow themselves before Magnus forces himself to turn away with Jace.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Magnus mutters to him once they’re clear of the Infirmary doors.

“I did,” Jace insists. “I should’ve done _more_. Sorry I doubted you.”

“You didn’t when it mattered,” Magnus reminds him. “That was enough.”

He’s right. Things are far from perfect, hell, they’re far from _good_... but Alec is alive, and considering the way things could’ve turned out, that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> (Find me on [Tumblr](http://bytheangell.tumblr.com) and also on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/By_The_Angell)! <3 )


End file.
